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Car Buyers' Guide: NZ's least popular car colours

Do not underestimate just how much of a mistake it can be to buy a car in the wrong colour.

Yes, you might harbour romantic thoughts about your four-wheeled friend being an extension of your being but, if you want your car to retain the most value on the second-hand market, having the right colour might make a difference down the track.

With that in mind, here are the five least popular car-colour choices in New Zealand. It might be best to avoid these …

Yellow: 1837 sold in 2016

According to NZTA sales data, a total of 1837 new cars painted yellow were sold last year. Once considered a staple in the automotive world’s palate, yellow finds itself largely on the outer.

In the ’70s and ’80s, the art of standing out from the crowd with your car was welcomed and celebrated. Nowadays, however, we find ourselves favouring the notion of ‘stealth wealth’. Yellow isn’t a likely survivor in that environment, though it still has its fans.

The one motoring segment who still love a dash of yellow are the compact and supermini segment. The vast majority of new yellow cars sold last year from this group are small cars including the Kia Rio, Ford EcoSport, Nissan Juke and the Suzuki Swift Sport.

Gold: 2387 sold in 2016

But, back to stealth wealth…

If you’re well off financially but want to rub it in people’s faces with class, you largely do so via silver and black vehicles. This explains the huge percentage of German saloons painted in these hues.

If you want to make everyone – from your neighbours to people in the supermarket parking lot – think you’re a show off? Well, buy a gold car.

Arguably, gold has always been the most offensive of colours to roll off a showroom floor. Thankfully its popularity is winding down.

With most of those aforementioned German manufacturers largely avoiding the colour, gold’s rag-tag group of apologists are a curious mix. They include the Fiat Ducato, Ford’s Falcon, Ranger, Everest and Mondeo, and the Kia Sportage.

Purple: 580 sold in 2016

Almost all of the 580 new cars painted purple last year are either Honda Jazzes or Mitsubishi Mirages.

I’m not sure what that says about the colour but it can’t really be good. Much like yellow, purple was once a dominant force. Hell, HSV used to release big fire-breathing V8 Clubsports in purple.

If anyone has hopes of bringing it back, it’s probably Holden. Outside the Jazz and Mirage, their current Spark and Commodore models are some of the few that have sold in purple with reasonable numbers.

Cream: 528 sold in 2016

While the likes of yellow and purple arguably hinge on sales to a young demographic, cream is the poster colour of oldies.

The biggest offender out of those sales is the Isuzu D-Max, of which 212 were sold in cream last year (admittedly, Isuzu’s cream is quite flattering). In fact, all of the biggest sellers in cream last year were off-roaders of some description, with the D-Max joined by the Suzuki Vitara (125), Mitsubishi Pajero (21), and Kia Sportage (30).

This could be reflective of these respective cars being a common choice among an older demographic.

Pink: 93 sold in 2016

As the demand for pink shirts (particularly among males) increases, the demand for new cars painted pink seems to decrease — though scientists still haven’t proven whether the two trends correlate.

Less than 100 new pink cars sold last year; most were either Suzuki Celerios and Altos (67 and 12 respectively). Beyond them there were Kia Picantos and two Mazda 2s. Nothing else sold in numbers greater than one.

Forget Barbie, forget FAB 1 from the Thunderbirds, forget Suki’s Honda from 2 Fast 2 Furious; pink cars have never been cool. And probably never will be.

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Calculations are based on an interest rate of 10% per annum over a 3 year term with no deposit.
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